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Cal Takes Home Title in Annual 7 vs. 7 Tournament

BERKELEY - The California women's soccer team brought its spring season to a close by winning its annual 7 vs. 7 event. The eight-team tournament ran all day Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Cal hosted Stanford, UC Davis, St. Mary's, Pacific, Sacramento State, WPSL powerhouse Sacramento Storm and a Cal Alumni & Friends team (Legends) in Berkeley for the day.

'It was a fun day for all the teams,' Cal head coach Neil McGuire said. 'This event allows players to get a lot of touches on the ball, a chance to score a lot of goals and a good level of competition. The fans were treated to some amazing goals from all the teams. Going undefeated, and winning the event is of course a bonus.'

The teams were split into two groups and played round-robin format in the morning with teach team moving onto the knockout stages. For the afternoon's play, the teams were seeded according to their morning results.

Cal advanced from group play as the No. 1 seed after three wins in the morning. The Bears defeated UC Davis, 6-2, Pacific, 5-2, and Legends, 3-0. Cal drew Sacramento State, the No. 4 seed from the opposing group, in the quarterfinals and won by a score of 3-1.

Cal then took on cross-Bay rivals Stanford in the semifinals. Cal started fast, capturing a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Lisa Kevorkian and Megan Jesolva. Stanford, which advanced to the Final Four in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, tied the game up with two quality goals. The game was tied at 2-2 with nine minutes left and both teams had good opportunities to score. Cal gained the upper hand when Kevorkian scored the game-winning goal with five minutes remaining, which was enough to see them into the final.

The final game of the tournament was a rematch of last year's event when Cal took on against the Storm of the WPSL. The Storm was led by former Cal standout and current volunteer assistant coach Tracy Hamm and former Brazilian National Team star Sissi. The game began slowly with both teams trying to find ways to create goal-scoring chances but each were more interested in possessing the ball. In the second half, Cal overpowered the Storm with goals from Megan Jesolva and Natasha Richardson. The Bears won the match, 2-0, take home the trophy.